Faith Read Online Free Page B

softly, “‘When I lay my burden down, all my troubles will be over, when I lay my burden down.’”
    Dev felt all the old burdens weighing down on him. How had it come to this? Bellamy was long dead. Jack lay near death. The country was killing itself, and he and Armstrong were far from home   —and likely the next to die. The Quaker’s question poked him   — “Why wait? . . . He is already free.”
    With both hands Dev scrubbed his face and eyes, burning with fatigue. “Armstrong?”
    “Yes, sir?”
    “Thank you.” He could say no more. He couldn’t imagine life without Armstrong, especially now in this fight to the death.
    “We’ll do the best we can, sir.”
    Dev nodded, yawning. Then he let Armstrong pull off his boots. “I’ll take the first watch. You sleep.”
    “Sir, you will have duties tomorrow.”
    Dev gripped Armstrong’s shoulder. “I know. I’m tired, butI don’t think I’ll sleep right away. You rest, and I’ll wake you when I begin to nod off.”
    Armstrong removed his own boots and moved toward a makeshift pallet on the ground.
    “No,” Dev said sharply, “you sleep on your cot as usual. He’s my cousin. He took my bed, not yours.”
    “But   —”
    “Good night, Armstrong.”
    Armstrong shrugged and lay down on his cot.
    Dev sipped his coffee and listened as the camp outside their tent quieted for the night. His cousin lay still without moving. The face of Miss Cathwell came to mind. He saw so little beauty in this dreadful war that he couldn’t dismiss hers. A Quakeress, probably an abolitionist, nursing his cousin   —what next? And who was this Shiloh the other woman had spoken of? What had happened to her?

    Just after dawn Faith approached the camp hospital with Honoree beside her. Last night they’d helped in the surgical tents for the newly wounded. Today they would carry out their regular duties with the recovering patients at the hospital that had been set up in a large, empty cotton warehouse near a destroyed railroad yard. Faith tried not to dread another hot day of bad smells, gruesome sights, hard work, and disrespect   —the last of these almost the hardest to take in stride. She and Honoree came prepared for the day, carrying buckets of water over their right arms and cloth sacks of fresh bandages over their left.
    Then Faith heard the sound of muffled weeping. Shestopped, seeking the source of the lament. She walked around the warehouse, the sound becoming louder with each step.
    Behind a shady elm she found a pretty, very young woman with pale-blonde hair, her forehead pressed against the rough bark of the tree.
    “What is the matter?” Faith asked softly.
    The girl straightened up and began to wipe her tear-washed face with her hands. She turned to leave.
    Faith offered the girl a handkerchief. “May I help?”
    The young woman couldn’t speak for a few moments, so Faith patted her shoulder gently, calming her. She was dressed very simply in a blue cambric dress, not fashionable but modest. She wore a poke bonnet that had slipped down and hung on her back. “I . . . I thought I could volunteer. You know . . . help around the hospital. My husband is a new recruit.”
    Faith nodded, sorry to hear another wife had been brought along to the war. “And what was so upsetting?”
    “One of the doctors told me he got enough women messin’ in his business. He didn’t need one more.” She hiccuped.
    Faith frowned slightly. “Let me guess. This doctor was tall with red hair and   —”
    “And a rude mouth,” Honoree added, coming up behind Faith.
    “Yes,” she said, eyeing Honoree.
    “Thee wishes to help with the wounded?” Faith asked.
    Now the girl stared at her. “‘Thee’? Are you a Quaker?”
    “Yes, I am a Quaker. Does thee wish to help?”
    She nodded, still staring at Faith with an occasional peek at Honoree.
    “The man who was rude to thee is Dr. Dyson, but he is not in charge of the hospital. Captain Slattery is the head